Program kicks at Annual Collaboration Summit, provides advanced courses taught by leading community developers

SAN FRANCISCO, March 2, 2009 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the Linux Foundation Training Program, which will kick off with courses taught at the Linux Foundation’s Annual Collaboration Summit April 8 - 10, 2009 in San Francisco.

While the Linux server market is predicted to reach $50 billion dollars in three years, and the embedded and mobile Linux markets continue to explode, the picture is less rosy in other corners of the IT market. Developers are being laid off, and many are looking to careers in the Linux and open source sector. The freelance marketplace Odesk (www.odesk.org) recently reported that the number of Linux-related jobs posted on its boards has increased more than 1400% since 2006. The Linux Foundation’s Training Program will help meet this demand for industry, and provide the tools for a new generation of programmers.

Built in concert with its Technical Advisory Board (which comprises leading maintainers from the Linux community), the Linux Foundation’s Training Program will feature courses taught by many of the actual community developers. The Linux Foundation’s Training program will be vendor-neutral, technically advanced and built in conjunction with the actual leaders of the Linux development community themselves. The Linux Foundation training classes will give attendees the broad, foundational knowledge and networking needed to thrive in their careers today.

The Training Program will debut with the following classes:
• Essential Linux Device Driver Development Skills
• Creating Applications for Linux
• Kernel Debugging and Performance

Students who register for these first Program offerings will get an automatic attendee pass for the Collaboration Summit. For more
details, please visit the Training Program Website.

“We’ve received consistent feedback from companies worldwide that the rising number of Linux deployments is putting new demands on a talent pool that needs more Linux-related developers,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at the Linux Foundation. “We believe the Linux Foundation can provide a vendor-neutral forum in which students can learn from the community’s most influential contributors in order to drive their careers in more lucrative directions.”

The Training Program will consist of in-person courses at the Linux Foundation’s events, including its Collaboration Summit, End User Summit and LinuxCon, in-person classes in cities around the United States (dates to be announced) and onsite, custom courses for companies that want to ensure their developer core remains current. Graduates of the Program will gain access to resources at the Linux Foundation, which will provide students networking opportunities with the developer and vendor community through a variety of its events and activities.

About the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux. Founded in 2007, the Linux Foundation sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and is supported by leading Linux and open source companies and developers from around the world. The Linux Foundation promotes, protects and standardizes Linux by providing unified resources and services needed for open source to successfully compete with closed platforms. For more information, please visit www.linux-foundation.org.

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Trademarks: The Linux Foundation and Linux Standard Base are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds. Third party marks and brands are the property of their respective holders.